THE V WORD

A slang made popular by Oprah Winfrey raises questions about our ability to deal with female sexuality

This is the story of how a silly-sounding word reached the ear of a television producer, and in only seconds of air time, expanded the vocabularies of legions of women. On February 12, 2006, viewers of the series Grey8217;s Anatomy heard character Miranda Bailey, a pregnant doctor who had gone into labour, admonish a male intern, 8220;Stop looking at my vajayjay.8221;

The line sprang from an executive producer8217;s need to mollify standards and practices executives who wanted the script to include fewer mentions of the word vagina. The scene, however, had the unintended effect of catapulting vajayjay also written va-jay-jay into mainstream speech. The show8217;s most noted fan, Oprah Winfrey, began using it on her show, effectively legitimising it: 8220;I think vajayjay is a nice word, don8217;t you?8221; she asked her audience. Vajayjay found its way into electronic dictionaries like Urban Dictionary, Word Spy and Merriam-Webster8217;s Open Dictionary. It has appeared in the Web publications Salon and the Huffington Post and on the blog Wonkette.

The swift adoption of vajayjay demonstrates that there was a need for a word for female genitalia that is not clinical, crude, coy, misogynistic or descriptive of a vagina from a man8217;s point of view. Acceptance of the word, however, also reignites an old argument, one most forcefully made by Eve Ensler in The Vagina Monologues. Ensler wrote that 8220;what we don8217;t say becomes a secret, and secrets often create shame and fear and myths.8221; Vagina is too often an 8220;invisible word8221;, one 8220;that stirs up anxiety, awkwardness, contempt and disgust.8221;

In a voice-mail message, Gloria Steinem said she hopes the women using vajayjay are doing so because they think it is more descriptive than vagina, not because they are squeamish. Another view was offered by John H. McWhorter, a linguist, who pointed out that the women associated with introducing the word8212;Winfrey, the character on Grey8217;s Anatomy8212;are middle-age African-Americans.

8220;There is a black naming tradition8212;names like Ray Ray and Boo Boo,8221; Dr. McWhorter said. 8220;It sounds like a cartoon character with eyes that walks around.8221;

Shonda Rhimes, the creator and executive producer of Grey8217;s Anatomy never never intended to promote a euphemism or slang term for the female anatomy.

8220;I had written an episode during the second season of Grey8217;s in which we used the word vagina a great many times perhaps 11,8221; Rhimes wrote in an e-mail message. 8220;The folks at broadcast standards and practices blinked. I think no one is comfortable experiencing the female anatomy out loud.8221;

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Rhimes asked the show8217;s writers for alternative words, but it was an assistant, Blythe Robe, who volunteered her own alias: vajayjay. 8220;As in 8216;I8217;m off to the gynie to see about my vajayjay,8217;8221; Rhimes said. NYT

-Stephanie Rosenbloom